I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween and that no one’s feeling too sick from eating the leftover candy — or from sneaking treats from their kids.

It's hard to believe that it’s already November, but here we are at the tail end of 2010, heading into the holiday season. Speaking of tail end, we at MTM hope that you enjoyed last week’s look at the male posterior.

This week, we’re flipping it around again for a look at some hot male bulges — you know, that part of the male anatomy that men think about most often.

I’ve heard lots of women say that a man’s junk is not her favorite body part. Most of us prefer chest or shoulders or thighs or even backs and behinds to the bulge. Except maybe at key moments when the bulge is essential.

But I don’t know that we’ve been quite honest with ourselves about how sexy a man’s bulge can be. Today, we’ll test that theory, and see how many of you find yourself acknowledging that, yes, size does matter and a man’s package is a pretty special thing.

We’ll start out mild and move to wild.

Above, please note the fine six-pack and the respectable bulge in the jeans.

Monday seems better already, doesn’t it?

This gentleman would make any woman who loves man-thighs breathe faster. He does have amazing legs! But there’s a nice bulge under those gym shorts, which, thoughtfully, are wet.

If you read the interview with me on Facebook, it asks what’s my favorite kind of clothing for the opposite sex to wear and I put "wet boxer briefs." There’s a reason for that, which you can see somewhat here.

I’ve posted this one before, though some of you didn’t care for the torn belly shirt and found it a bit too... silly. But this gentleman is sporting a decent package, so I included him. Plus, I just don’t mind staring at the rest of him. I love his chest, and I love the fact that he’s not waxed.

Excellent obliques, too, as well as a nice trail to follow in case you’re coming in for a landing and somehow got lost.

Speaking of package... If you could put a bow around this and put it under my Christmas tree, I’d be very grateful. Briefs never looked so good. Makes you want to... Touch. (Still working on that...)

This photo knocked the breath out of my lungs. I just stared. And stared. And stared. Then I decided I’d gone into the wrong field of journalism. I ought to have gone into sports journalism so that I could interview hot men in the locker room, where sights like this are probably common and, unfortunately, largely wasted on guys who don’t appreciate them the way I would.

This photo rocked your world earlier this year. It fit the theme, and we just didn’t think you’d object to seeing it another time. But if you do, just look away. That’s right. Pretend there’s not something amazing wrapped up in gauze here and look away. I know you can do it. Okay, so maybe you can’t. I can’t either.

Does he need help getting untangled? Inquiring hands, er, minds want to know.

Someone is in a bit of trouble. He’s manacled to the table in torn undies that display his bulge quite nicely. Why a table? Beef — it’s clearly what’s for dinner here.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s installment of MTM. Next week, we get back to the basics: chest. Yes, a return to man titty.

Just thought I’d do a quick update on Breaking Point. I missed my Oct. 15 deadline, but I won’t miss it by too much.

I finished Chapter 26 this weekend while enjoying a long chat with readers on Goodreads.com. The even was organized by a reader, Dhestiny, who has her own blog at Blithely Bookish (you can find it listed lower down on the right side here). I think in the end there were more than 200 posts. Of course, a lot of those were from me answering questions. But back to Breaking Point...

I had hoped to write three chapters this weekend, but it just didn’t happen. The biggest difficulty about having another job besides novel writing is that it uses up brain power and tends to push my characters out of my mind, no matter how hard I try to hold onto the prior weekend’s inspiration. So it wasn’t till Sunday morning that the chapter began to click for me.

I have about four chapters left to write — 27 through 30 — plus the mandatory epilogue. (Oh, come on! Most of you are total suckers for a poignant epilogue.) Then begins what I love the most — the editing process.

Different authors handle writing differently. Some bang out an entire draft of a book in a short period of time — a couple of weeks or a month. But I’ve been an editor too long to bang out anything. So I edit while I write, which makes the process take muuuuch loooooooooonger.

But the upside of writing the way that I write is that when I’m done, I have a fairly polished manuscript. Then my attention shifts from themes and plots and details to really finessing the story, polishing the prose, making sure every scene is how I want it. With the pressure to produce pages behind me, I find it my most creative time. Sometimes I even add, completely rewrite or revise scenes during this time. The shackles scene in Sweet Release is an example of that.

I spent some time Sunday evening trying to figure out how this book ends, and the pieces are miraculously starting to fall into place. I hope the next chapters move quickly. I don’t want to be so late with the book that I lose my July publication date.

Other book news: I got the rights to my historicals back from the original publisher, so they belong entirely to me now. You'll see the print copies disappear from stores, including online stores, and the e-books will come down, too. Right now, the sales are still going to the book's former publisher. But hopefully they'll be back relatively soon once I work out how to handle it all. It’s new to me. I’m exploring some interesting options at the moment. Sorry that they’re going to be largely unavailable for a while.

Unlawful Contact sold in Japan, and it looks like the I-Team may be on its way to China. Keep your fingers crossed!

We’re due to get our first frost tonight. This morning was windy and rainy, then the sun came out. Now the temps are dropping. The tops of the high peaks were sparsely white. Not deep snow yet, but a sign that we’re moving toward winter.

Have a great rest of your week. I hope to pop in again before the weekend.

Thanks to all of you who joined in the Goodreads chat, and thanks to Dhestiny for setting it up.

I hope you will all forgive me. We at MTM HQ may be crossing a line this week. But what’s life if you’re unwilling to take risks?

Before we return to our worship of bare male pecs — that is the purpose of Man-Titty Monday — I thought we’d finish our exploration of men’s backsides. Last week, we took a look at traps and deltoids and triceps. This week, we're going to focus on the glutes.

Yes, that’s right. Today we’re focused on what Brit-ish people call “bums.” In the U.S., a bum is someone who passes out on park benches at night. In more Brit-ish parts of the world, a bum is what you sit upon.

And look at the specimen above. He's wearing his costume already. Thank goodness he’s not wearing tights or a cape. I love the dimples just above a guy’s glutes. He is super, that’s for sure, and he can rescue me any time he likes.

Here’s a young man just waking up from a restful sleep to discover his own bicep. We think it’s nice, too. Perhaps nicer is the posterior he’s got wrapped up in tighty-whities. Is he sleeping with weights? Come on! We can do better than that.

I like this fellow even more. I love the fact that he’s doing push-ups in a black thong. I think that’s a brilliant idea. More men should try it, particularly if we’re there to watch. Those of you who like backs will love this photo, as well. I don’t know for sure who this guy is, but there are parts of him that resemble you-know-who (no, not Voldemort!).

This guy is named Marco. And he is resting. Who wants to rest with him? He is absolutely breathtaking, is he not? The smooth man-curves. The tat. All that muscle. Can you imagine being beneath him? I can.

No edition of MTM would be complete without Jed Hill. I hope the Blogger Police don’t come to shut our MTM party down. This photograph is... sublime. It offers man-bum at its finest. But it’s no fun being able to see it without being able to touch. Women are, after all, more tactile in our sexual responses than men. They like to look; we like to touch. But MTM hasn’t gone interactive in that way yet. If we can find a way to develop Stroke-o-Vision, we will let you know.

Halloween will come and go before we meet again, so here’s a nice Jack-oh-my-Lantern MTM-style to get us all in the spirit of the holiday. But I have one question before I let you get on with your Monday: Who got to paint the designs on this guy? Why do I never get asked to do these things?

That just bums me out.

Happy Monday, womankind! And Happy Halloween!

P.S. On behalf of our sisters in Australia, we are posting this edition of MTM early. It’s already Monday there.

I hate myself. I read this entire book in a few big gulps rather than working on the novel that is already late to New York. Go me.

Why? Well, for starters, I've gotten really attached to the whole damned town of Virgin River. I had to see what would happen to Mel and Jack and Preacher and Paige and their buddy Mike and poor Rick and Liz.

The book weaves together all of these couples and their story lines, and it's told from a myriad of perspectives. So while the story ostensibly focused on Preacher and Paige, there was a lot to the story that didn't involve them.

Paige is the quintessential abused wife who accidentally winds up in Virgin River at Jack's bar while trying to escape her S.O.B. of a husband. She and her little boy come under Preacher's protection — and the relationship between them builds over time, first as she goes about trying to set up a life free of abuse and then later as she and Preacher fall in love.

As with the first book in this series, Virgin River, I enjoyed the midwifery aspects of the story. And it was good to see the issue of spousal abuse — I like that more than the term "domestic violence," which sounds friendlier somehow — explored with authenticity. It's a topic I've covered a lot as a journalist, and Paige seems to go through all the classic responses.

Because we get all these characters' continuing stories, there are ups and downs for everyone. I couldn't stop from getting teared up over the tragedy that befalls Rick and Liz.

But I need to NOT buy the next one until I'm done with my own book, because clearly once I start I'm just done writing until I'm done reading. If that makes any sense....

So I end the evening with the glow of having read a wonderful book and the all-consuming guilt of an author who made precisely zero progress on her own manuscript today.